GUDGEON AND BLEAK. 329 



nourishment, easy of digestion, and increasing good blood'. 

 adding, in fine : 



Though little art the gudgeon may suffice, 

 His sport is good, and with the greatest vies ; 

 Few lessons will the angler's use supply 

 Where he's so ready of himself to die ; 

 For if no heats or flashes interpose, 

 His prize he'll hold, and yours you cannot lose. 



Even as a cure for desperate diseases, the gudgeon is not 

 \vithouthisencomiasts : passim an author who wrote a ' History 

 of Fishes' in 1772, and who says (p. 113), that he 'is tender and 

 delicate, and by many swallowed alive, being thought good for 

 a consumption.' ... It is to be presumed, however, that the 

 fish to be thus disposed of were not of the same size as the 

 four from Uxbridge to which he refers immediately afterwards 

 as ' weighing a pound ' each. 



Galloway, the fisherman of Chertsey, tells, I remember, a 

 good story of two old gentlemen, ' mighty gudgeon fishers,' who 

 were in the habit of betting heavily on their respective ' takes,' 

 till at last, the old fellow who almost always won, was discovered 

 with a silk casting net stowed away under the boards of his punt ! 

 This old gentleman, by the way, lived at Hampton ; and it is 

 curious how many H's there are scattered up and down the 

 Thames Hampton, Hailiford, Harleyford, Hurley, Henley, 

 all beginning with the eighth letter of the alphabet, and all 

 redolent of gudgeon-fishing which its votaries maintain to be par 

 excellence the sport of the poet and the philosopher. 



The only mode of fishing for gudgeon is on the bottom, 

 this being his invariable habitat, and here he feeds on worms, 

 insects, larvae, spawn of other fish, and such matters, so that 

 when angling it is usual to rake the bed of the river in order 

 that the fish may be attracted to the spot by the animalculse, 

 blood worms, &c., which are disturbed in the operation. These 

 blood worms, often found by thousands on the surface of mud, 

 seem to be formed often or twelve connected globes, diminishing 

 in size towards the tail. The mouth is the largest part, and 



